Ulyanov says successful completion of Vienna talks is close

In a tweet on late Friday, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based International Organizations Mikhail Ulyanov wrote, "Great! The Heads of E 3 delegations need to leave Vienna for a couple of days. But their teams will be available in the Austrian capital for further negotiations!"

"This is encouraging! We are close to the successful completion of the talks on #JCPOA," he added.

Ulyanov also said in a post on his Twitter account that in an interview with ITAR-TASS earlier in the day, he "expressed a slightly more optimistic point of view" about the talks between Iran and the P4+1 group of countries.

"The ViennaTalks on #JCPOA can be successfully completed by the end of this month," he said.

The eighth round of talks on the removal of all anti-Iranian sanctions kicked off on Dec. 27 in the Austrian capital of Vienna and is one of lengthy rounds of talks.

These days, participants are busy active drafting the text of the agreement and deciding on some controversial issues.

The removal of sanctions and the issue of verification and guarantees that the other parties will abide by their obligations this time and the US will not reimpose the sanctions are among the most important and sensitive issues discussed between the parties in recent weeks.

Diplomats have said that there has been some progress in the talks, but there are still remaining issues such as the removal of the sanctions on Iran and its verification needed to be discussed before Iran return to full abidance by the 2015 nuclear deal, from which the United States withdrew in May 2018 and subsequent indifference of the European parties to make up for Iran's losses.

Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Minister upon arrival in Germany on Friday to attend the 58th Munich Security Conference (MSC )expressed hope that the Vienna talks between Iran and the P4+1 group of countries will lead to a good agreement in the near future.

NM/14001130000063